Volunteer: VEMN

VEMN is a revival of a former program that was thriving but lost funding several years ago. VEMN utilizes volunteers to monitor the waters and shoreline, the riparian area, along the Merrimack River in Massachusetts. To prepare for the trips, project assistants research historic maps to locate where past pollution sources may have been a contributor to current water quality. They visit previously monitored sites as well as determine new sites to be tested. Once the project leader has finalized the location of the monitoring sites, volunteers and project leaders travel to the monitoring sites in a boat, also owned and operated by volunteers in the area.

The group then tests water samples taken from the river and photograph the area. A lot of information can come from such a small amount of water! The project team tests the water for dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, conductivity, salinity, nitrates, ammonium and phosphates. The different levels of these components show the water quality in that specific area.

The MAPP project needs volunteers who own and operate motor boats and/or volunteers who are interested in taking water quality samples on the motor boats.  We begin monitoring in April/May and continue through the summer until September/October.  In the off-season we train people on how to use the equipment and take samples.  My goal is to have 16 teams of three people (one motor boat operator and two samplers) who can monitor once a month a section of the river.  The river is broken into four sections from the state line in Tyngsboro to Lowell, from Lowell to Lawrence, from Lawrence to Haverhill and from Haverhill to the estuary in Newburyport.  MRWC is looking to have four teams per section so that no team would have to monitor more than once per month (about 3-4 hours each time you are out).

Still interested? Then, please let us know the following:

• Are you interested in volunteering as a motor boat operator and/or volunteering as a water quality tester on a motor boat?
• If you would like to volunteer, what days and times are convenient training times for you?
• What section of the river you would like to monitor?
• What days and times you are available to be on the water?

You can get involved in this exciting project by filling out the “Get Involved” form on the Volunteer Page.  Please mention the MAPP Project and the answer to the above questions on your form.